JooJoo maker: iPad won’t crowd us out of tablet space

The iPad isn't the only tablet about to hit the market. Ars drops in on the …

When Fusion Garage invited us down to their Singapore office yesterday for a look at the JooJoo tablet, we went with the assumption that they would be showing us the final software running on actual production hardware. As it happens, we were shown the same device that the company used for its launch back in December.

Nevertheless, I had a chance to speak with founder and CEO Chandra Rathakrishnan, and was able to confirm additional information on the company’s plans, and about the device itself.

One of the first questions that we asked was whether Fusion Garage intends to modify its price in the wake of Apple’s launch of the iPad last week. The answer is no, the company has not changed its plans. “Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery,” Rathakrishnan told Ars. He is also confident that competition will not result in decreased sales for the JooJoo, noting that “The market is big enough for more than Apple.”

In fact, the company claims that it has enjoyed an increase in visibility thanks to increased awareness generated by the iPad, which it says has already resulted in more inquiries and preorders.

The obvious comparison

I was able to use a wireless mouse with the JooJoo

The biggest differentiating factors between the JooJoo and iPad are the former's 12.1-inch 1366x768 capacitive screen, x86 Atom processor, Linux-based oS 1.3 megapixel camera located on the front of the device, and the presence of a USB port. We confirmed that the USB port will support the HID (Human Interface Device) class out-of-the-box, which means that USB-based keyboards and mice will work by default. We plugged the nano transceiver from a Microsoft Wireless mouse into the JooJoo to test, and were able to use it to navigate the JooJoo. But no mouse is needed: the JooJoo is designed to be operated completely via the use of gestures.

Rathakrishnan was enthusiastic about the hardware that powers the JooJoo; the design was obviously something he took pride in. To underscore the engineering feat, he told me, “We have managed to pack in more hardware profiles than the iPad without compromising on sleekness [of the JooJoo].” He was referring to the thickness of the JooJoo here, which measures between 0.2 inch and 0.7 inch—while sporting a larger screen. The Apple iPad is 0.5-inch thick with a 9.7-inch display.

Rathakrishnan reiterated that the JooJoo boots up in 9 seconds, touting that as the fastest boot-up time of its class. Without elaborating, Rathakrishnan told me that the final version of the JooJoo will have a suspend mode similar to that of the iPhone.

Unlike the iPad, the JooJoo comes with only 802.11 b/g for wireless connectivity, though the company’s official stance is that it is not discounting the possibility of a 3G model down the line. We were able to confirm that any 3G model will come with the radio built into the same chassis.

The JooJoo will ship by end of February in the United States. Gadget heads from other parts of the globe will likely have to wait till the middle of the year when the JooJoo will be made available in “major markets” around the world. Given that Fusion Garage is a start-up, there are likely to be concerns about its ability to manufacture sufficient quantities of the JooJoo. To alleviate such concerns, Fusion Garage says it has secured a partnership with CSL Group of Malaysia. In effect, the relationship with this OEM will eliminate all upfront manufacturing costs to the company in return for a small royalty for every JooJoo sold.

Conclusion

Fusion Garage does not appear fazed by the litigation it's facing, or the imminent arrival of the iPad. However, there's still a lot riding on the completion of the JooJoo software, and it's a bit troubling that we were looking at the prototype software less than four weeks before its US launch. Fusion Garage claims that the software is now “closer to the 90 percent mark" and says it will meet its target for shipping.

But while a breakneck pace of development effort is certainly expected with such a category-defining device as the JooJoo, Fusion Garage is cutting it really thin. One factor that US readers may not be aware of is that that a major holiday—the Chinese New Year—starts in just over a week (February 14). While Taiwan (the JooJoo is manufactured there) does not experience multiweek factory shutdowns like China, the Chinese New Year is nevertheless a holiday season akin to the Christmas-New Year day break in the West.

Should Fusion Garage be able to keep to its schedule, the JooJoo will beat the iPad to market by a few weeks. Unfortunately, we don't know how good the final product will be, as we're still at the point of playing with prototypes under the guidance of the company. In a world without the iPad, the JooJoo with its simple interface and "browser-based operating system" could be a compelling product. Apple's decision to play in the tablet space has changed the equation, and JooJoo has long, uphill road ahead of it.

So if it's got a real USB port I wonder if I could attach a usb network dongle to it? I can see many applications where I am unable/not allowed to use WIFI, where such a thin device can still do many tasks.

@mrsteveman - I think current speculation is something like 1.6GHz Atom + NVIDIA Ion. Gizmodo (I think) had a post where they said they saw the thing's POST screen and confirmed the Atom, but they didn't know what the GPU was. Just that it had to have something decent based on the video playback they saw.

I'd love to see a full review of this, as well as any other "slate" form-factor devices that get released.

Personally, I'm mainly interested in a device that I can flop on a bean bag with and surf the web. Also interested in eReader capabilities, streaming photos and video from Windows Media Center (unlikely, right?) and Netflix streaming. I don't foresee wanting to use it much when outside of WiFi range and am definitely not interested in paying a monthly fee for cellular access. Easy of use is a huge factor -- I want something that my wife will have no trouble using, but I'm willing to do much more complicated setup (setting up a linux media server is no big deal, for example), so long as the actual usage is simple. The option for mouse/keyboard input on this device seems like it'd be great for hacking on it, or doing complicated configuration, but I don't expect to ever try using a slate for 'real work' -- I primarily want a nice to use, nice looking media-consumption device that doesn't make my wrists cramp when trying to navigate the UI.

I doubt that the JooJoo will be something I will buy at release, but I still want a better sense of what devices are available and what they can do. Reviews, as the devices become available, would help.

I think it might be able to be a laptop replacement if there is some sort of text editor that could be incorporated. Hook up a wireless keyboard & mouse and get the JooJoo stand and it should be good to go.

I would also love to be able to hook up my Clear USB Modem and surf away on 4G.

I think it has potential to be a decent product, but it would be very hard to justify buying this over an iPad. Apple's product is sure to have a lot of polish both in the hardware and software and the hundreds of apps that will come out for the iPad make it the obvious choice.

They would need to blow me away with how fast and fun it is to browse with it. Browsing is after all the number one thing it does. However, they don't seem eager to show it in action at all.

Originally posted by gigawhat:I think it has potential to be a decent product, but it would be very hard to justify buying this over an iPad. Apple's product is sure to have a lot of polish both in the hardware and software and the hundreds of apps that will come out for the iPad make it the obvious choice.

They would need to blow me away with how fast and fun it is to browse with it. Browsing is after all the number one thing it does. However, they don't seem eager to show it in action at all.

Considering that the joojoo pad should be running an x86 processor and some form of linux you cannot compare the amount of apps available from apple. We're talking hundreds vs. tens of thousands

Originally posted by Anduril:Considering that the joojoo pad should be running an x86 processor and some form of linux you cannot compare the amount of apps available from apple. We're talking hundreds vs. tens of thousands

This is true for Windows based tablets too, but how many of those thousands of Linux and Windows apps are built with a touch interface in mind? In my opinion this is the main reason tablet based computing has never caught on, running desktop apps on a touch screen is just not a very good experience.

The big thing they are going to be leveraging vs. the iPad is full flash support (and a web cam). Once you factor that in, JooJoo will have tons of games and "apps" right out of the box, as well as Hulu support. It remains to be seen how much people will value that flash support when balanced against the usual Apple polish and finish quality.

Glad to see some follow up on the joojoo, I'm incredible happy to see the usb isnt simply for backing up or syncing the device. If the usb port can support a 3g dongle, it would set this device on the road to something awesome. Also, I would be willing to take a blind shot for $300-400, but $500 means I going to wait for reviews.

As long as it survives litigation, I'd say the fact it's running a linux version of some sort should make it pretty hackable for people wanting more out of it and there shouldn't be any of the draconian app store crap people have to deal with via Apple. Main questions will be runtime, and how useable it is out of the box. App development should be straightforward since its x86. Probably alot of apps that can easily be ported after some UI updates for touch screen.

Originally posted by gigawhat:This is true for Windows based tablets too, but how many of those thousands of Linux and Windows apps are built with a touch interface in mind? In my opinion this is the main reason tablet based computing has never caught on, running desktop apps on a touch screen is just not a very good experience.

While this is possibly true, how many of the apps on the App Store just plain suck? Tons. Easily half.

I'm not really seeing the appeal here. It has 4 GB of non expandable storage, heavier, thicker, and half the battery life of the iPad for the same price. It runs Flash which will makes it a more web capable device but it doesn't sound like native apps is a big part of their plan. From the interviews I've seen they have emphasized how the web is the "ultimate app store" so it sounds like they're taking the web based approach (e.g. first gen iPhone apps). On the other hand there is local storage on the device though so maybe there will be native apps unless it's just there for the OS.

It's also a TN screen, and while bigger does not have much of a resolution advantage.

Originally posted by magnusalpha:I'm very disappointed that Ars didn't ask Fusion Garage ANYTHING about the Crunchpad/JooJoo litigation. That's is the interesting part of all this.

They probably can't comment on pending litigation anyway.

I suppose Ars could have asked, but yeah. No chance of getting an answer. I don't care about the lawsuit, but I'd have to suspect that if Arrington doesn't have something meaningful on paper to sue them over, he's toast.

Still, the 90% software thing and the lack of change in what they're showing over 6 weeks just screams "not ready for launch" to me. Which is too bad, because they could have a nice niche if they got a reasonably polished product out in time.

Originally posted by Anduril: Considering that the joojoo pad should be running an x86 processor and some form of linux you cannot compare the amount of apps available from apple. We're talking hundreds vs. tens of thousands

x86 processor means it will be a battery life waster.Since Flash sucks more on Linux (3rd class citizen to Microsoft), Flash will be another battery life killer.

The iPad has over 140,000 apps, which are rapidly increasing in number. It should have 200,000 + apps by the end of the year. iPad specific apps can be full blown productivity software like Apple's own iWork suite. Of course, it has GAMES, GAMES, GAMES. Multi-touch Real-Time Simulations should ROCK on the iPad. The iPad will have more eBooks than any other platform. They will be mouthwatering on a large vivid color screen.

With Linux, there are going to be few and far between applications specifically for a touch pad. You're lucky to be able to use a mouse on it to use conventional desktop apps.

Software is the greatest differentiator between platforms. Here, the iPad wins by a huge landslide which is extremely difficult to match.

Perhaps Joo Joo should have waited for Chrome OS for Touch PCs. At least they have a chance of getting apps.

Seems plausible that this thing might be capable of running Windows 7 or a different GNU/Linux distro. In any case, this is a real tablet, unlike the restrictive piece of junk iPod-wannabe known as the iPad.

Originally posted by gigawhat:I think it has potential to be a decent product, but it would be very hard to justify buying this over an iPad. Apple's product is sure to have a lot of polish both in the hardware and software and the hundreds of apps that will come out for the iPad make it the obvious choice.

They would need to blow me away with how fast and fun it is to browse with it. Browsing is after all the number one thing it does. However, they don't seem eager to show it in action at all.

Considering that the joojoo pad should be running an x86 processor and some form of linux you cannot compare the amount of apps available from apple. We're talking hundreds vs. tens of thousands

Yes. The ipod/iphone/ipad has thousands of fart apps and repackaged web content. Of course when you group together every little trivial thing for a platform in one place it's going to seem a lot more impressive than it really is. There are also a lot of iphone apps that would be considered mere datafiles on some desktop platforms.

Originally posted by gigawhat:This is true for Windows based tablets too, but how many of those thousands of Linux and Windows apps are built with a touch interface in mind? In my opinion this is the main reason tablet based computing has never caught on, running desktop apps on a touch screen is just not a very good experience.

While this is possibly true, how many of the apps on the App Store just plain suck? Tons. Easily half.

That's the law of large numbers for you.

If easily half of all apps suck, then it will suck no matter what platform you are on. Therefore that allegation has no weight.

My understanding of this device is that it's going to be totally web-based. You won't be installing anything locally; there's no access to the OS to do so (well, until someone hacks it). It boots right into a browser window. Chandra has said something about an "App store" for it, but those apps will also be in the cloud.

I just don't get the hype on the iPhone. I got one because of hype and find the iPhone lacking. I had to jailbreack it to just to bring it to an almost functional state. It takes forever to sync and needs iTunes.... No bluetooth file transfer. No contact sync without iTunes. i can't share pictures with other phones and it always needs an "app for that". If I had known before I would not have signed up for it.

Originally posted by JEDIDIAH:Yes. The ipod/iphone/ipad has thousands of fart apps and repackaged web content. Of course when you group together every little trivial thing for a platform in one place it's going to seem a lot more impressive than it really is. There are also a lot of iphone apps that would be considered mere datafiles on some desktop platforms.

Ok, I'm really tired of this old canard. If your contention is that the entirety of the difference between the iTunes App Store and, say, the Android Market (which is something like 80,000 apps) is made up of fart apps and trivial promotional programs and the like, you're obviously mistaken. If that's not what you're saying, then you're just trolling, because otherwise what possible relevance could there be to reminding us all once more that yes, there are fart apps in the app store?

Originally posted by JEDIDIAH:Yes. The ipod/iphone/ipad has thousands of fart apps and repackaged web content. Of course when you group together every little trivial thing for a platform in one place it's going to seem a lot more impressive than it really is. There are also a lot of iphone apps that would be considered mere datafiles on some desktop platforms.

Ok, I'm really tired of this old canard. If your contention is that the entirety of the difference between the iTunes App Store and, say, the Android Market (which is something like 80,000 apps) is made up of fart apps and trivial promotional programs and the like, you're obviously mistaken. If that's not what you're saying, then you're just trolling, because otherwise what possible relevance could there be to reminding us all once more that yes, there are fart apps in the app store?

Apple's 80s style approach to web content is what generates most of the need for "apps". Take that away and much of their so called "apps" are irrelevant. This is why many of us find the idea of an intentionally crippled web browser on a tablet to be so despicable.

The stupid fart apps are just the tip of the iceberg and only one thing my original post mentioned.

Android is just a red herring. With luck, tablets won't be stymied by it either.

Originally posted by JEDIDIAH:Take away the 80s approach that Apple has to web based data, and most of their so called applications are irrelevant. They are made moot by a proper web browser. I don't care what Android is doing. It could be doing the same stupid stuff, or not, or merely not overhyping a lame marketing approach that belongs back in the 80s.

Fart apps are just the tip of the iceberg.

Games are not, though. And I think you totally overestimate the willingness of people to do everything through a browser and a mobile network connection that may be slow and unreliable and sometimes not available at all. Look at what the iPhone did to AT&T and its 3G network and then try to see millions of people working through their browsers. You won't see much, I bet.

Although a pure web tablet for much less money would have its market, no doubt. Sell it for $99 and people will flock to it. Sell it for the same amount of money as an iPad and nobody will care for it.

And every hardware that can run a decent browser and Flash and everything won't be that much cheaper anyway. Between the display, memory, CPU/GPU, battery and all the rest there's just not enough room to make it much cheaper and still have it work in a way that people would like to use it. Really. The only thing you can cut down costs on is flash RAM and this isn't much (or even almost nothing if you just include some SD card slots).